A verdict was returned on Wednesday in favor of a Massachusetts patient who was the victim of medical malpractice. The patient’s doctor failed to treat him for a burn to his foot. The doctor knew about the burn and even made a note regarding the burn in the patient’s chart, but at the end of the day, the doctor still would not admit he failed to take proper care of the patient’s burn, which eventually resulted in a leg amputation below the knee.
After the jury came back with the verdict in favor of the plainitff, the defendant doctor replied by saying that he could not understand why he was to blame. He believed it was the plaintiff’s own fault that he eventually had to have his leg amputated below the knee because of the untreated burn on his foot.
The defendant doctor stated,
“I thought it was crazy to be sued for a self-inflicted injury.”
He said this despite the fact that he knew about the injury and even stated in the patient’s medical record,
“this is a very threatening thing for Charlie. This foot is at risk if it gets infected.”
The attitude this doctor has about treating patients is the very reason doctors should be more carefully scrutinized and held responsible for their actions. If every doctor and court of law held to this doctor’s theory of liability, doctors would almost never be responsible for their actions because all they would need to argue was that the patient injured himself. This doctor and other doctors need to realize it is not how the patient was injured but how he was treated for that injury.
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